WCA January 2011

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20 Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2011
Telecom news
Two cables under the
Tasman Sea between New
Zealand and Australia
would be one too many
Each of two New Zealand companies
– Kordia and Pacific Fibre – has
plans for an undersea cable linking
New Zealand with Australia. But,
as reported on telecomasia.net,
both company chiefs acknowledge
that only one such project would
be viable. (“NZ Firms Square Off in
Tasman Cable Race,” 11th October).
State-owned Kordia is the former
Television New Zealand transmission
arm that now operates on both sides
of the Tasman Sea. Pacific Fibre is a
private company founded in 2010 by
six New Zealanders.
Dylan Bushell-Embling of telecomasia.
net noted the similarities and
differences between the two projects.
Kordia’s $100 million OptiKor cable
would connect Auckland with Sydney
and then link with the PPC-1 of PIPE
Networks, running from Australia to
Guam. The Pacific Fibre cable is slated
to link Auckland with Sydney and then
the United States. That project would
cost an estimated $400 million.
Kordia CEO Geoff Hunt told Dylan
Bushell-Embling of telecomasia.net
that his company’s cable would take
advantage of the absence of com-
petition in New Zealand’s international
bandwidth market.
Southern Cross’s SXC is currently the
only cable with spare capacity linking
Australia and New Zealand.
“There’s a lack of diversity for the
Auckland-to-Sydney route, [and] SXC
is the only game in town,” he said.
“So competition was needed to bring
bandwidth pricing out of New Zealand
to realistic levels.”
Mr Hunt commented that the mere
threat of competition from the two
projects had already brought capacity
prices down significantly. Southern
Cross was said to have slashed its
fees by 75% since the OptiKor project
was announced.
While OptiKor is in an “advanced stage
of preparation,” according to its CEO
– with surveys completed and landing
routes plotted – the project has not
advanced to the construction phase.
Mr Hunt acknowledged, “We need
foundation customers in place to
underpin the financing of the project
and we don’t have them in place.”
For its part, Pacific Fibre has a
tentative rollout schedule that would
see a vendor chosen early this year
and the cable in service by 2013, CEO
Mark Rushworth said. But his project,
too, has met with obstacles: “typical”
issues of technology, funding, and
sales. As noted by telecomasia.net,
the two parties are looking into the
possibility of a collaboration.
Elsewhere in telecom . . .
The ✆ ✆ Nikkei Weekly, Japan’s
English–language business news-
paper, reported on 21st October
that negotiations were believed
to be under way for the imminent
$1.2 billion purchase of Keane Inc,
a Boston-based IT services firm,
by NTT Data Corp of Japan.
NTT Data is the network-services
unit of the largest Japanese phone
company, and the strengthening
of its presence in the US would
advance its stated aim to
quadruple overseas sales in the
three years to March 2013.
“Broadband is the next tipping point, the next truly transformational
technology,” asserts secretary-general Hamadoun Toure of the International
Telecommunications Union. “It can generate jobs, drive growth and
productivity, and underpin long-term economic competitiveness.”
The report “The World in 2010: ICT Facts and Figures,” published by the ITU
in October, presents the Geneva-based UN agency’s analysis of the current
state of information and communication technologies around the globe.
The opening section, “The Rise of 3G,” provides these statistics:
By the end of 2010, there will be an estimated 5.3 billion mobile cellular ✆ ✆
subscriptions worldwide, including 940 million subscriptions to
third-generation (3G) services
Access to mobile networks is now available to 90% of the world’s ✆ ✆
population and to 80% of those living in rural areas
People are moving rapidly from 2G to 3G platforms, in both developed ✆ ✆
and developing countries. In 2010, 143 countries were offering 3G
services commercially, compared to 95 in 2007
Regarding 4G, a number of countries have started to offer services at ✆ ✆
even higher broadband speeds, moving to next-generation wireless
platforms. These include Sweden, Norway, Ukraine and the United States
“Towards The End Of Double-Digit Mobile Growth,” the second section of the
ITU report, supplies these statistics:
Mobile cellular growth is slowing worldwide. In developed countries, the ✆ ✆
mobile market is reaching saturation levels with on average 116 sub-
scriptions per 100 inhabitants at the end of 2010 and a marginal growth of
1.6% from 2009 to 2010
At the same time, the developing world is increasing its share of mobile ✆ ✆
subscriptions from 53% of total mobile subscriptions at the end of 2005
to 73% at the end of 2010
In the developing world, mobile cellular penetration rates will reach ✆ ✆
68% at the end of 2010, mainly driven by the Asia-Pacific region. India and
China alone are expected to add over 300 million mobile subscriptions
in 2010
In the African region, penetration rates will reach an estimated 41% at the ✆ ✆
end of 2010 (compared to 76% globally), leaving a significant potential
for growth
The remaining sections of the report are: “SMS Triples in Three Years”;
“Two Billion People on the Internet but Too Few in Africa”; “Connecting
Homes”; “The Continuing Broadband Divide”; and “Broadband Speed and
Affordability”. The World in 2010: ICT Facts and Figures may be read in its
entirety on the ITU website
After a decade of growth driven by mobile
technologies, the UN’s telecoms agency takes
stock of the connecting-up of the world